EBACE 2011: Bombardier Adds More European Support Services

A year after the grand-opening celebration for its Schiphol Service Center in Amsterdam, Bombardier Aerospace (Stand 7011) is adding more capacity to the wholly owned facility. The company is growing the staff at Schiphol by 30 percent and adding shifts this year to provide more flexibility for customers to schedule light and heavy maintenance tasks. Maintenance for the Challenger 850 is also being added as is expanded expertise in interior refurbishment for the entire Bombardier business jet fleet.

“The market overall has recovered nicely over the last six months,” said James Hoblyn, Bombardier’s president of customer services. “We see it certainly in the emerging economies in Europe as you go east and south.” Bombardier plans to continue investing in the European marketplace on top of recent expansion of investments in parts distribution, simulators and personnel. “We’ve added a number of different people on the ground,” he said.

Bombardier’s AOG support is targeted for growth, too, and the mobile response team, based in Belfast, is slated to add two more maintenance technicians by July, bringing the total to eight. The mobile team supports customers in Europe and the CIS, operators of more than 580 Bombardier business jets.

During the past six months, Montreal-based Bombardier added a regional support office in Dubai and a PartsExpress aircraft to serve the Middle East, parts of Asia and Africa; established new authorized service facility relationships in China and Latin America; and inaugurated a parts satisfaction guarantee program. Bombardier now has 52 authorized service facilities and AOG line maintenance facilities in 26 countries.